The babies, they are a-gettin’ big!

-ghp

More description & discussion over at EW.com.

-ghp

Is this thing on?

Wow. It still works. Good to know…

Some random musings that have been floating through my mind after a nice Holy Trinity Sunday service (LSB, DS III, for those who care) this morning…

• The Athanasian Creed – we didn’t confess it today. That makes me sad. Why didn’t we? Well, the usual, I suppose – “it’s too long”, “it’s too different”, “it’s too confusing”, etc. I don’t buy that, but matters little-to-none in the grand scheme.
• On Eagle’s Wings – this (LSB 727) was sung during distribution. Can someone convince me that it’s not utter emotionalistic dreck? Anyone?
• The Nunc Dimittis – we didn’t sing it today. I think it got cut to move things along & keep the service shorter. That makes me sad, because I loves me some Song of Simeon.
• VBS Themes – this year’s VBS theme was announced/touted – “God Rocks!” *sigh* I guess I’ll cut VBS some slack, but overall, it rolls together with my confusion & annoyance over the contemporary obsession with making everything FUN!!! – as if that’s the panacea for fixing what ails the church. ‘Cause, goodness knows that Sunday School & Youth programs focused on FUN!!! for the past 35+ years has worked sooooooooo well.
• Perfect(?) Rewards – After service, awards were given out for Sunday School perfect attendance. Thing is, you can miss up to 3 times & still get “perfect” attendance. Not even the local public schools have devalued the word/concept that much (heck, in the Valpo Public Schools, if you want “perfect” attendance, you still have to be there every day – no mulligans!). I’m not agin the award, per se, just agin the misuse of the word “perfect”. Are we teaching our kids that “perfect” = messing up once or twice? And, if so, what might that subliminally be teaching them about (the need for) Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection? I don’t mean to be overly pedantic here (well, maybe a little), but words have meaning, and precision in that meaning is a good thing that we ought not throw away. Especially in some misguided effort to make kids (or is it their parents? hmmmm?) feel better about themselves.

Ahh, that feels better. Back in the saddle. Gotta get ready for the upcoming district convention, and all the festivities that come along with that. I’m sure there’ll be plenty to write about…

-ghp

In the spirit of honoring that hard-earned knowledge, I will now make sure that I keep my dear, sweet, gentle, loving bigsis happy by getting some photos up from my #1 son’s recent 9th birthday, per bigsis’s Godmotherly request. (check out the first comment on the post immediately preceding this one… LOL!)

For good measure I’ve also thrown in a few photos of Holly Jean, who is now a robust 7 months old, 15 pounds, and recently spayed. Only a month after it was initially scheduled, as the little dickens went into heat the day before we were scheduled to take her into get spayed the first time. Seems she was precociously early in starting that, from what the Vet told us, anyway, so we got the pleasure of making sure she kept a little denim diaper properly fastened to her tiny butt for about two weeks or so. It did get her a new nickname, though, as she became forever known as our little “attack baboon”.

The last thumbnail/photo below is specifically for bigsis, as it’s of our parents. I know it’s a pretty bad photo, but it was kind of shadowy in the garage, and (as was the case with all of the pics) I’m still getting the hang of working with the ins-and-outs of the camera in the new BlackBerry. Anyhoo, he’s getting ready to give her a backrub. LOL!

Just click on a thumbnail & you’ll get sent to a bigger version over at Flickr…

-ghp

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Flowers are Red (Harry Chapin)
The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin’ young man
I’m paintin’ flowers he said
She said… It’s not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There’s a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You’ve got to show concern for everyone else
For you’re not the only one

And she said…
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

Watch the video at YouTube

An affinity for Harry Chapin, particularly the Legends of the Lost and Found live double album, is one of the few musical tastes that bigsis and I have in common. I recall listening to that album over & over again on bigsis’s stereo, when it was stored at our parents’ house right after bigsis got married (and before she got settled enough to lay claim to it again). I thought that was the coolest stereo system ever. So, there was an upside to your stuff taking up all that space, sweetie! ;^)

Several times during the past two weeks, I felt almost guilty, like I wasn’t getting done what I should. At those times, I tried to remind myself of why I took the two weeks off: 1) to watch the kids, so that we didn’t have to pay for daycare during their holiday break, and 2) to watch the new puppy, helping her get acclimated to her new home (esp. in the form of house-training her…).

I’m pretty sure that I’ve blogged before on my tendency to, shall we say, underperfrom/achieve in the face of large chunks of free time. This was certainly the case in the past two weeks, somewhat understandably fueled by the fact that Holly needed lots & lots of close supervision — meaning that I wasn’t able to do a whole lot of anything that required undisturbed concentration.

That all said, I’m willing to pin my rationalization (and, thus, my positive state of mind) on the vocational argument that realizes and accepts that I fulfilled the two main reasons/goals I had for taking the time off of work. Namely, I was able to watch the kids & keep from having to send them to daycare. Money was saved & lots of good time was spent with them. Second, I think that I was quite successful in helping Holly get properly integrated into her new home. She isn’t fully housetrained, but then what 10 week old pup would be? She is, however, making good progress, and seems to understand the basic premise. She is also showing herself to be much more comfortable with her new surroundings and, in particular, her new big brother Hammie. The two of them are now really starting to have fun romping & playing with each other, and then snuggling for a nap. And she’s growing like a weed, having gained a full pound in the past week, getting her up to a robust 4.2 lbs!

I know that returning to work will be a pain tomorrow (esp. given the backlog of work that’s resulted from one of my staff leaving with rather short notice recently…), but if it was all fun, it wouldn’t be work, now would it? ;^)

For those of you who might be interested, here are links to two new slideshows, one of Holly & Hammie snuggling, and the other of Holly’s first bath.

-ghp

The good:

• The new LSBs were in the pews, and we sang all the hymns from them. They’ll be dedicated next week, and I would guess that in about a month or two we’ll start to see the use of liturgies right from the book. This is cool. This is good.
• The sermon was a very good application of Law & Gospel, with the Law convicting us of our inability to walk Jesus’ walk, and the Gospel sweetly comforting us & keeping us safe in the sure knowledge that when God looks at us, He sees Jesus and the results of His walk, not the failure of ours.
• The Lord’s Supper, the celebration of which is always a comfort.

The bad (or at least not-so-good):

• Pre-service music included “God Bless America”, which of course meant that someone had to stand up & implore everyone to, “Sing the words everyone!” I really don’t like it when the pre-service preparations are disturbed by this type of thing (sort of like how I detest it when folks clap after a chorale during the service), even if/when/though well-meaning. Neither do I like it when nationalistic stuff from the Left-hand Kingdom bleeds over into the Right-hand Kingdom.
• Post-Benediction recitations of pledges of allegiance to the Christian and American flags. I’m not a big fan of services on/around July 4. I’m proud to be American and I’m certainly thankful that God saw fit to bless me & my family by being Americans. However, I still don’t like having the divine service turned into a service of nationalistic cheerleading. Frankly, once I enter into the sanctuary, I wouldn’t care if the folks worshipping with me are Americans, Germans, Turks, or even Iraqis. What matters in that context is that they are fellow Christians. My goodness, what if a foreign national had been there today? I dare-say that they would’ve been unnecessarily offended by the unwarranted nationalism on display.
• A reminder/update on the process of finding a DCE. This is an ongoing thing that is causing a not-small amount of angst within the congregation, as well as amongst some of the boards. To get into it in any more detail here would be neither productive, nor proper, so I’ll just leave it that it continues to be a thorn in my side.
• Helping serve the Lord’s Supper. It’s part of my duties as a member of the Board of Elders, but it’s one that I’ve never gotten fully comfortable with, as I’m a supremely unworthy sinner. I wish that I didn’t feel so conflicted about these duties, but that probably won’t happen until such a time as we change up how the elements are distributed.
• Non-Every Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Supper. I wish that we could get to the point where folks understood that offering the Supper every Sunday is the right & proper thing to do. I truly don’t understand how some can argue that offering it at every service somehow devalues it by making it more “common”. Is the air we breathe less “special” and/or “meaningful” merely because it’s so abundantly common? I think not.
• The Territorial Daughter being squarely in a phase where she really, really doesn’t want to go to church. This makes every Saturday night/Sunday morning a battleground – one that makes me feel both powerless and like a failure.

All in all, it wasn’t all that bad. It’s just that the things that irritate me are very difficult for me to set aside, even (especially?) when I know that I should.

-ghp

[tags]christianity, church, lutheran, music[/tags]

I’m not prepared yet to wax verbose (much less eloquent) about this yet, but give the posting a read, and you’ll get a good idea of where I’ll be coming from when I do finally find the words (and not the anger/frustration) to describe why I find certain attitudes & practices so detrimental to the body of Christ.

Madre’s Missives – Why Higher Things exists…

-ghp

After this past weekend, when the Territorial Brood set up a temporary annex at Casa de big sis, I bet that big sis would have no problem believing this little factoid of (potentially) junk science.

Now, I don’t put a whole lot of stock in this type of research; however, I will say this much — I’d rather the kids play the Wii, with the possibility that they’re moving around (i.e., active in some way) than just sitting like a blob in front of the tube, either just watching tv or playing a traditional console/computer game. Some activity is better than none, especially during the winter doldrums.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

-ghp

Neither does Jon over at Beggars All. In a recent posting — Youth Pastors Anonymous — he lays out a wonderfully cogent and timely case against the ghettoizing blight that is “Youth Ministry”.

I agree wholeheartedly with Jon. Herding the youth off into their own ghetto is wrong on many levels. Congregations do not need to be divided over & against themselves in such a way. It serves no one, and it is not a faithful execution of that which is described in Acts 2:40-47. Neither should the OHM be devalued in such a way, for it belies a lack of respect for that which Christ instituted for our benefit.

I don’t understand this desire by so many folks to elevate kids & youth as somehow being unique & having different needs than the rest of church. As Jon puts it so well,

All this being said: A pastor must be discerning and must know which of his flock need milk and which need meat. The milk and the meat however are from the same cow. Children need milk and by the time they are confirmed they should have enough teeth to chew the meat. If a person is not ready for this meat – the pastor should exercise his authority and not confirm this person.

Catechesis is not a function of age and teaching must be tailored to the spiritual maturity of the subject. This spiritual maturity is not a chronological function it is a function of the Holy Spirit.

True dat.

-ghp